Page 10 of Zel
“Why, Mother!” Zel curtsied. “I am a lady.”
Sophie threw her arms around Zel’s neck so suddenly that he gasped. They were almost equal in height, although Zel was the tiniest bit taller. He remembered how strange it had been the first time he could look her in the eye.
He brought his arms up around her waist to hug her back.
“That boy loves you too much,” Sophie said. “It is cruel to lead him on.”
“I don’t. I have always been plain with Rudy. He leads himself on. If he hates me when this is over, I can accept that.” Zel thought he could accept anything once this was finally finished, but perhaps he wasn’t being truthful that he could accept Rudy’s hatred. He didn’t want to lose his friend. He didn’t want any of what lay ahead of him other than his freedom.
Sophie was just as fierce of an assassin as Gregor. They had alternated being Zel’s seconds on missions. Tonight had simply been Gregor’s turn. Both had taught Zel how to wield a blade, but his mother had taught him how to move so stealthily that not even an eagle’s eye could notice him in the shadows.
Whether either of those skills would be enough to best the sorcerer would be tested soon enough.
“Happy birthday, my sweet boy.” Sophie released him to hand over an object wrapped in cloth.
“Now who’s tempting fate?” Zel asked, since the hatch to the Thieves Guild remained open, though he could see down into it that there was no one skulking below to have overheard.
“Open your present.”
“You and Father already gave me my new dagger.”
“This is just from me.”
Curiously, Zel unwrapped the cloth and found the pristine silver brush his mother had used to untangle his hair since he’d had enough hair to get tangled.
The one the sorcerer let her keep.
“You can be whoever you want to be when this is over, my darling Rapunzel.”
Whoever he wanted?
Even being an adult now, Zel wasn’t sure who that was.
“I might not do away with all my skirts and dresses,” Zel said, for he knew that much was true. “I do like wearing them. Maybe with fewer layers though.”
Sophie laughed and pulled him in for another hug.
“Also, um…”
“Yes, Rapunzel?”
Zel cringed. “Nothing. I love both my presents, Mother. Thank you.”
With so much else about to change, Zel could ask his parents to call him by his preferred name if and when he returned home to them.
Whenhe returned home, successful and free.
There had been much speculation within the guild about why the sorcerer wanted Zel, and why specifically he wanted Zel to ingest all that lettuce, infusing him with some sort of magic, even if not immortality. The reigning theories were, one: so Zel would be a more delectable meal when the sorcerer devoured his soul on their wedding night; or two: that the sorcerer truly did want a bride who would be healthy and vibrant after eating the heartiest of vegetables for twenty winters when much of the kingdom was malnourished.
Zel hoped for the latter, at least until it all unraveled into attempted murder on his part, because then the sorcerer might be kind to him during the month.
Whatever the truth, whatever the sorcerer honestly wanted, he was not going to get it.
ULRICH
All was going according to plan, and at last, Ulrich’s final night alone was upon him.
Tomorrow his betrothed would be brought to the tower, and everything would fall into place over the month ahead. It had been centuries since he had enjoyed company, since he had known any companionship at all.
